A focus on sports in Cincinnati, but I do tend to digress, so who knows where it will go!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Smallville.

I am a super hero guy. I read comic books, I watch the Marvel/D.C. movies, and I enjoy most of them. Deadpool is my favorite comic book "hero," but mainstream I am a Batman guy. And for the record, I was a Batman guy long before "The Dark Knight." In any case, my friend Tony suggested that I try watching "Smallville." He has all the seasons on DVD, so I borrowed season one and just finished it yesterday.

Quick Recap

"Smallville," is the account of Clark Kent in high school. What life was like as his powers were developing, friends coming into and out of his life, blah blah blah. It seems like the type of show you would watch after school on the WB. Think "Dawson's Creek," but with super powers.

Issues

Issue number one is the before mentioned high school theme. I am close to 30, so it is tough to relate to high schoolers and their world. I think that if my wife would have given it more of a chance she might have liked it. She loves high school shows, such as "Gossip Girl," which is one of her new favorite shows. Incidentally, she just found out that we do not get the channel that carries both "Smallville," and "Gossip Girl," on Dish. She might soon be demanding a switch to Direct TV, we will NEVER go back to Cable TV, take that Time Warner!

Issue number two is the writing for the show. Every episode with the exception of about three were just recycled garbage from the first episode. Some kid in Smallville, normally a weirdo, has an accident involving leftover meteor rocks and now has super powers that only Clark can fight off. I know there needs to be suspended belief for these shows, so, I won't touch the fact that every time something happens Clark is in the middle of it, in a small town....don't these people ask questions, but I said I wouldn't touch it. Predictable, boring, uninspired and dumb. Are they assuming that only morons watch the show and could not comprehend a serious plot twist?

Issue number three is continuity. Watching this show is like watching "Titanic." You know the ship is going to sink, what is the hell is the point? "Smallville" is very similar, Clark's two best friends are never heard of again and his "love" interest is mentioned, but you know he goes to Metropolis and falls for Lois Lane, not Lana Lang. So all the story that they build around these 4 characters are basically irrelevant to the future of Clark/Superman. This is also what I like to refer to as the "Barbara Hambry Effect." 'Ol Barb is an author who has written two Star Wars books, and they are the most godawful crap I have ever read, it is blasphemy. I am a big Star Wars guy, so her books are especially disturbing to me. Her two books develop characters and story lines that are never again mentioned in ANY of the other Star Wars books.

Issue number four is the end of season one. Wow, do they ever hold their fans hostage. I know you tend to build up and leave maybe a little bit of a cliff hanger for the next season, but nothing on this scale. There are at least four different major events that are going on, that get no resolution. I was more pissed than excited about seeing the first episode of season 2. I cannot remember a show in recent memory that has had that much of a cliff hanger from their first season to the next. In "Heroes," there was a cliff hanger or two, but there was also resolution. It built up all season to saving the cheerleader and the city blowing up, and it resolved those two. there was no building, since it was recycled stories about every week, and there was no real resolution.

Issue five, more of a pet peeve really. The Ross/Rachel factor. It is a staple in any show written now a days, you have to have that awkward, will they/won't they, between two of the stars in the show. And because I got so sick of the Rachel/Ross drama, I find myself tuning out any show that starts to build that right away. the worst part is, that it's really irrelevant, as I mentioned before, since we all already know that Clark goes to Metropolis and falls for Lois Lane.

The Good

The best part about the show, and the only compelling story line is that between LexLuthor and Clark. You know that Superman and LexLuthor end up being bitter rivals, but in "Smallville," they are best friends, with some slight awkwardness. The other part about this that I find interesting is that in the movies and comics, Lex never knows that Clark and Superman are the same, he just hates Superman. However, in "Smallville," Lex is pressing to see if Clark is indeed blessed with special powers after Clark rescued him from drowning in his car. I might tune in just to see how this plays out. How do they go from Philo and Clyde to Yanks and Sox?

Over all I would give this about a 4 out of 10. Tony keeps telling me that it gets better after the first season, but I am on the fence as to weather or not I want to give it the time to evolve. I might try the second season to say that i gave it a fair shot, but at this point I am not sold.